When Alex White learnt that a man who worked for the same childcare company where he sent his son had been charged with child sexual abuse, he demanded answers.
However, finding out the specific centres and dates the man worked, and whether his child had crossed paths with the abuser, was an uphill battle.
Alex White learnt that an abuser attended his son’s daycare through the media. He’s calling for greater transparency.Credit: Wolter Peeters
In Victoria, thousands of parents were told their children may have been exposed to sexually transmitted diseases while attending daycare centres where Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown worked.
Meanwhile, parents who sent their children to an early childcare centre in Sydney where a worker was last week charged with seven counts of using a child to make abusive material remain in the dark.
The childcare centre cannot be identified because a court order was put in place to prevent “psychological harm” to his alleged victims, including those yet to be identified by detectives.
Parents are demanding more transparency over allegations and investigations into childcare workers, arguing restrictions may protect abusers and hinder more victims from being identified.
White and his wife discovered through the media that Only About Children childcare worker Quoc Phu Tong had been charged with abusing a child.
Tong, who worked at several Only About Children centres, pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally sexually touching a child under 10 years old and one count of common assault this year.
“We went into the daycare and confronted them about it, and I demanded they notify the parents because I didn’t think that it was right that they were withholding that information,” White said.
White said they got the dates Tong and their son were at the same centre after contacting Only About Children’s chief executive and the child abuse squad, but said they discovered one extra date that had been missed.
“I’m still upset about it, like so many months later. It’s still emotionally stressful,” he said.
‘Parents have a right to know.’
Parent Alex White
“Parents need to be notified when there has been an incident affecting their daycare – when the police have arrested somebody in the daycare or it has risen to the level where a mandatory report is required … parents have a right to know.”
Child Abuse Squad commander Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett said police may not release details of a case or perpetrator to protect victims and their investigation. Parents asking leading questions may contaminate evidence, while police didn’t want to warn centres of an investigation pre-emptively.
“We don’t want to lose vital evidence,” she said.
Georgie Dent, chief executive of The Parenthood, says communication with parents needs to be improved.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The Parenthood chief executive Georgie Dent said while there needed to be a balance between protecting victims and the judicial process, communication with parents had to be improved.
“There have been cases where the person’s been charged, it’s before the courts and no one’s come and talked to the parents about it,” she said.
“They feel like they don’t have a right to know.”
Dent said that in some cases, privacy laws had restricted employers from learning about sanctions an employee had been subject to.
A review by former NSW deputy ombudsman Chris Wheeler released in June recommended that the state’s Education Department, which is the regulatory authority for early childhood education and care, be resourced to publish more information about compliance actions taken, such as suspensions of providers or employees.
“There’s been a genuine erosion of trust, and there are a lot of things that need to be done to help restore confidence and trust for parents in this system,” she said. “Naming educators who are charged with serious crimes is one small safeguard for parents.”
University of Sydney director of criminology Professor Tyrone Kirchengast said a blanket law prohibited identifying child victims of crime, but parties involved in legal proceedings could seek to suppress additional details to protect a perpetrator, their property and their family’s safety.
“The nature of the inquiry into child sexual abuse is such that the accusation is so devastating, there’s a chance of vigilantism and reprisals and other violence,” he said.
“Where an accused is on remand, they’re not afforded full protections of isolated custody or protective custody. Extensive media reporting might also jeopardise their safety before they’re brought before the courts.”
Kirchengast said in the case of Joshua Brown, who has been charged with 70 sex offences against eight children in his care, details may have been released as the number of centres he worked at meant his victims and residence would have been harder to identify than a perpetrator living and working in a more isolated area.
“There are some significant tensions between public access to justice … versus the need to ensure that an accused person is brought before the courts and in a way that allows them to stand trial.”
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